2/24/2010:
On one moonlit night in February of 1911, a young man by the name of Will Miller broke into the local drug store in Ambrose. As Miller crept through the store in search of valuable items, a marshal on patrol caught sight of his shadowy figure in the store window and arrested the burglar before he could get away with any stolen goods.
The next evening, as Miller sat in a cell at the local jailhouse, he plotted his escape. When the marshal stepped out to eat his evening meal, the prisoner broke out of his jail cell, pried open the coal house door at the back of the jailhouse, and slipped out unseen through a small window. Upon returning to find his prisoner gone, the marshal immediately formed a search party. The hunt was on!
First, the marshal went to the house of Ambrose resident, Joe Vadnais, whom he knew to be a friend of the fugitive. When he arrived at the house, Mr. Vadnais was not around, but his wife answered the door. When the marshal asked Mrs. Vadnais about the fugitive, she claimed she had not seen him. However, when the marshal requested permission to search the house, Mrs. Vadnais refused to let him enter.
Suspicious, the marshal stationed a guard outside the house, while police scoured the rest of the town for Miller. Yet, no trace of the fugitive was found.
The next day, the marshal returned to the Vadnais home with a search warrant and a handful of police officers. They searched the house from top to bottom, but found no sign of Miller.
Before the marshal and his officers left, he asked Mr. Vadnais if there was a cellar beneath the house. Mr. Vadnais denied they had a cellar, but his wife let slip that there was a small hole in the ground beneath the floor that they used for storage in the summer. The policemen carefully examined the floor and discovered a piece of oil cloth tacked to the wood. They removed the cloth and uncovered the hole Mrs. Vadnais had described. There they found the elusive fugitive hiding beneath a pile of clothes. On this date in 1911, the White Earth Record reported that police had finally captured and arrested Will Miller and that Mr. Vadnais was also arrested for harboring a fugitive.
Dakota Datebook written by Carol Wilson
Source: The White Earth Record, February 24, 1911.